A unicast stream is a one-to-one connection between a destination server and a client. In general, this means that each client receives a distinct stream and only those clients that request the stream can receive it. Alternatively, when transmitting in the opposite directions, client requests are sent as unicast packets to the destination server. Content can be delivered as a unicast stream from either an on-demand or a broadcast publishing point. In the unicast stream transmission, each client has a unique connection to the destination server from which it is receiving the unicast stream.
As discussed above, when transmitting from a client to a destination server, the client requests are sent as unicast packets to the destination server. These requests are forwarded, hop-by-hop, to the destination server. The destination server then processes the requests and responds back to the client. There is a problem with this simple client-server architecture in that all the client requests end up at the addressed destination server.
Some applications, however, require client requests to be sent to multiple destination servers. There is a problem, however, if the client request should be sent to multiple destination servers. Current systems for transmitting unicast packets cannot send requests to multiple destination servers. Instead, the client request is replicated at the client server, and unicast to the other destination servers. Multiple requests therefore cause unnecessary traffic, slow down the communication system, and raise the possibility of other inefficiencies.
Accordingly, a need exists to transmit unicast client requests to multiple destination servers without replication of the original client request.